Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, March 21 – I saw this product in our local supermarket a couple of weeks ago and it caught my eye. Our store doesn’t sell many imported or western items, so it was unusual. I guess the American flag was probably what caught my eye…with little sausages instead of stars on the flag! And the fact that it was made by a Chinese company. Well, I just finally got around to looking it up and it turns out that Shuanghui, the largest meat producer in China, purchased Smithfield Foods of Virginia in Sept 2013. Supposedly, they import US pork into China, not China to US. And it was thought-provoking that with all the concern about food safety in China, Smithfield had to stop using the controversial additive Ractopamine (banned in 160 countries, but NOT the USA), in order to be able to ship meat to China! Guess food safety concerns go both ways! So, this past week, although I haven’t seen this Shuanghui Virginia style sausage at the store again, I did see numerous Smithfield products for sale. All very interesting…at least to me! My facts here are from various online sources which I consider credible.
